Ministers take exception to delay, substandard work in implementation of drinking water project in Kalaburagi

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil took the officials to task for the inordinate delay in implementation of 24/7 drinking water supply for Kalaburagi city as well as the poor quality of work.

Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil took the officials to task for the inordinate delay in implementation of 24/7 drinking water supply for Kalaburagi city as well as the poor quality of work.

“CIPET (Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology) institute from Mysuru has given a report that the pipes being used for the project in Belagavi city are substandard and not desirable. You are using the pipes of the same brand for the project in Kalaburagi,” Mr. Priyank said to the officers at a meeting at the district administrative complex in Kalaburagi on Saturday. The meeting was convened to review the progress of works taken up by the Kalaburagi City Municipal Corporation and Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board (KUWSDB).

When KUWSDB superintendent Kantaraj tried to state that the report pertained to Belagavi and not Kalaburagi and the samples of the pipes were sent to CIPET, Hyderabad, for examination, Mr. Priyank got further annoyed and asked the officer whether the report of CIPET, Mysuru, was not sufficient or whether the officer was trying to get a green signal from CIPET, Hyderabad, to use the substandard material.

The Ministers were visibly shocked when officers told the meeting that the same pipes were already laid for 129-km length in the city and the hydrostatic test (a pressure test conducted for strength and leaks) was done for only two-km stretch. When asked why the test was not done on the remaining stretch, Mr. Kantaraj said promptly replied that the test when conducted on the two-km stretch had miserably failed and hence, it was decided to change the test criterion from the two-km stretch to the 500-m stretch. Mr. Patil took serious exception to it and asked the officer whether he had abruptly changed the test criterion to accommodate the substandard pipes.

“Why did you allow the contractor L&T [L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd.] to lay the substandard pipes along the length of 129 km when the hydrostatic test conducted on the two-km stretch had already failed? Now, you have changed the test criterion itself to ensure that the substandard pipes would pass the test. It is in no way acceptable. You should continue the test as per the specifications made in the contract. If the material doesn’t pass the test, you should compel the contractor to replace the substandard material,” Mr. Patil said.

The explanations by L&T representative Sanjay did not convince the Ministers. “L&T is one of the biggest and most prominent companies in the field of engineering and infrastructure development in India. We did not expect such substandard work from you. It is not acceptable if you promptly deliver as expected only for bigger projects involving thousands of crores of rupees and neglect the smaller projects involving a few hundred crores of rupees. We don’t accept your explanation for the inordinate delay in completing the project either… Do you know how difficult it was to get funds from World Bank? The delay in the implementation of the project would result in poor credit score for which State might be denied loans for the future projects,” Mr. Priyank said.

Mr. Priyank got annoyed when Corporation Commissioner Bhuvanesh Devidas Patil pleaded ignorance on some of the issues pertaining to the project.